Details

Setting the boot loader password will require that anyone rebooting the system must enter a password before being able to set command line boot parameters

Rationale:

Requiring a boot password upon execution of the boot loader will prevent an unauthorized user from entering boot parameters or changing the boot partition. This prevents users from weakening security (e.g. turning off SELinux at boot time).

Solution

Create an encrypted password with grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2:

# grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2
Enter password: Reenter password: Your PBKDF2 is

Add the following into /etc/grub.d/00_header or a custom /etc/grub.d configuration file:

cat <set superusers=’‘
password_pbkdf2
EOF

Run the following command to update the grub2 configuration:

# update-grub

Additional Information:

This recommendation is designed around the grub bootloader, if LILO or another bootloader is in use in your environment enact equivalent settings.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3399

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management, Identification and Authentication.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|CM-1
• 800-53|CM-2
• 800-53|CM-6
• 800-53|CM-7
• 800-53|IA-5
• CSCv6|5.1
• CSCv7|5.1

Source

• Tenable.com/audits